Australia's healthiest career path

If you have a philanthropic streak and want to apply that within a professional setting, then have I got some good news for you.

According to the Australian Bureau of Statistics, health care and social assistance is currently the largest employer of Australians, with 1,403,500 jobs as at May 2013 – that’s 12.1 per cent of the total Australian workforce.

This trend is forecast to continue with health care and social assistance jobs top of the list of growing employment opportunities in Australia over the next five years. In fact, the bureau estimates that this industry will offer up 177,800 new job openings between now and 2017. This figure is especially promising for the female population, who currently account for 78.5 per cent of these roles.

So what jobs does health care and social assistance actually include?

Breakdown of sub-categories within health care and social assistance

The sub-category ‘professionals’ refers to occupations that require a bachelor’s degree or postgraduate study and includes highly trained roles such as physiotherapists and social workers. In fact, a large proportion of the workers in health care and social assistance need to have obtained some form of post-school education or training to successfully carry out their jobs.

In terms of specific roles, this category covers an impressive range of professions including medical, dentistry, allied health, natural therapies, speech and hearing sciences, psychology, counselling, social work, welfare work and aged and disability care.

The top 5 employing health care and social assistance professions for 2013 were:

If you’re looking for the most lucrative opportunities amongst the health care and social assistance professions, it should come as no surprise that medical specialists come in on top of the earning ladder, with an average annual salary of $283,973. This average is calculated through the MyCareer Salary Centre, based on the job advertisements listed on their site within a 90-day period.